Information about the next chipset generation that will be powering the best Samsung phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 next year – Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – is slowly trickling down via the usual channels that deal with mobile processor leaks.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 specs and graphics
First we learned that Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will come in a more powerful configuration than the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and now famed leakster Digital Chat Station claims that the new Adreno 750 GPU will be 50% more powerful than the current Adreno 740 in the S23.
While the Galaxy’s Gen 2 processor has one peak performance core, four midrange ones, and three everyday computing cores for the mundane tasks, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will arrive with two high-end performance cores which can be revved up to 3GHz+ high clock speeds, as well as three midrange cores in the following layout:
- 2x Arm codename Hayes (A5xx) “silver” cores
- 3x Arm codename Hunter (A7xx) “gold” cores
- 2x Arm codename Hunter (A7xx) “titanium” cores
- 1x Arm codename Hunter ELP (Xn) “gold+” core
This would ensure more balanced distribution of power and, if Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is built on the 3nm process, like the Apple A17 is expected to be, the increase in performance will happen at a power draw comparable to that of its predecessor.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra, for instance, runs on a custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 called Mobile Platform for Galaxy, which is clocked higher than the stock 3.2 GHz version, and is giving Apple a run for its money in the GPU department.
According to our benchmarks, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip seems to be on par with the iPhone 14’s Apple A15 processor, at least in the multi-core results, despite being clocked lower, and it only gives way to the new Apple A16 in the iPhone 14 Pro Max in the multi-core count. When it comes to graphics and gaming performance, however, it meets and even beats the A16 as it stays a few degrees cooler under gaming pressure, all at a comparable performance per watt.
If the Adreno 750 GPU in Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is indeed 50% faster, the next Mobile Platform for Galaxy on the Samsung Galaxy S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra, may again beat the graphics subsystem on the iPhone 15 Ultra model that will be its top-end competitor.
In short, with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm created its best mobile chipset in recent memory, and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will seemingly solidify those tendencies even when facing Apple’s powerful A17 chipset and its graphics processor.
